Alcatraz (band)
| Alcatraz | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| origin | Hamburg (Germany) |
| Genre (s) | Progressive rock , jazz rock , classic rock , gothic jazz |
| founding | 1970 |
| Website | www.alcatraz-band.de |
| Founding members | |
| Klaus Holst (1970–1984, 1988–1990, 1994–1998; † 2009) | |
| Rüdiger Berghahn (1970–1979) | |
Bass , vocals |
Ronny Wilson (1970–1972, 2009–2012) |
| Jan Rieck (since 1970) | |
| Current occupation | |
Guitar, electric piano |
André Czarnotta (from 2015) |
guitar |
Thomas Kirschler (from 2014) |
saxophone |
David Wolf (1999–2002, sporadically from 2014) |
Bass, vocals, percussion |
Mike Kann (1982–84, 1988–2002, from 2013) |
Drums |
Jan Rieck |
| former members | |
Guitar, vocals, percussion
|
Alexander Steffen (1970) |
Bass, vocals |
Ronny Wilson (970-72, 2009-2012) |
Keyboards, vocals |
Rüdiger Berghahn (970-79) |
guitar |
Klaus Holst (1970–1984, 1988–1990, 1994–1998; † 2009) |
| Klaus Nagurski (1971–1973, 1976) | |
saxophone |
Matthias Zippel (1971) |
Bass, vocals |
Wolfgang Kracht (1972–1973) |
bass |
Anselm Kluge (1973) |
bass |
Klaus Hormann (1973–1977) |
violin |
Manfred Brembach (1973–1974) |
Vocals, harmonica , keyboard, guitar |
Thomas Hockling (1976–1977, 2005–2008) |
bass |
Edmund Schulze (1977–1978) |
Saxophone, flute |
Rainer Hansen (1978–1982, 1984) |
bass |
Ralf Twellmann (1978–1980) |
bass |
Manfred Jacob (1980–1982, 1984) |
percussion |
Marco (1984) |
Bass, saxophone, guitar |
Mario Menzerolf (1984–1988) |
Keyboard, vocals, flute, saxophone |
Maic Walther (1984–1986) |
Keyboard |
Stefan Peter (1984–1986) |
Bass, vocals |
Albrecht Kunschke (1984–1986) |
Trumpet , saxophone |
Hannes Wienert (1986–1988, 1992–1993, 2014) |
singing |
Peter Brandes (1988–1990, 2013–2014) |
Vocals, keyboard, saxophone |
Phama John (1988-1993, 1996-1998) |
guitar |
Matthias Petzel (1991–1993, 1996–1998) |
guitar |
Peter Brusch (2009-15) |
Organ, keyboards |
Lutz Rahn (2012–15) |
singing |
Beate Jeroch (2014–15) |
Vocals, harmonica |
Guy Roberts (2014) |
Keyboards |
Bernd Nagurski (2014–15) |
Alcatraz is a German rock crossover band project from Hamburg . It works mainly with fusions of creative styles of rock and jazz.
overview
Alcatraz has moved in history since 1970 between the status of a professional band and a semi-professional band.
The band's discography began in 1971 with the LP Vampire State Building at the Phillips Corporation. Over the following years, the band brought out the publications in their own publishing house, including existing distributors. There were also LP releases in various small independent publishers.
Musically, the main tendencies were initially, from 1970 to 1972, with influences from the English scene of progressive blues rock and jazz rock ( Ten Years After , Keef Hartley Band , Savoy Brown , Remo Four , Taste , Colosseum, Soft Machine ). This was later influenced by Frank Zappa , Jeff Beck , Mahavishnu Orchestra , King Crimson , Tony Williams' Lifetime, Patto and Miles Davis .
The original line-up for Alcatraz's first LP - Rüdiger Berghahn (vocals, keyboard), Klaus Holst (guitar), Klaus Nagurski (saxophone, flute), Ronny Wilson (bass, vocals) and Jan Rieck (drums) - was nationally managed by manager Willy Jahnke presented at festivals, in theaters, large rented cinemas and cultural centers.
history
1970s
The band was founded in March 1970 on the Hamburg Elbe island of Finkenwerder . The main stylistic phases or milestones in Alcatraz history took place after Wilson and Nagurski's departure in the first half of the 1970s with Holst, Berghahn and Rieck as central musicians.
This led u. a. in 1976 as a sextet with Thomas Hockling as singer, again Klaus Nagurski on sax and flute (he later switched to classical music) and Klaus Hormann on bass. This was the first time that Hockling and Berghahn used predominantly German texts with acrid cabaret and political timbre.
Until 1978, it became much more political in the quartet alongside left German movements and especially the anti-nuclear movement , and the band also performed live in this context.
From 1979, Holst and Rieck turned away from this orientation. Berghahn left the band. They only played instrumental fusion, then referred to by the scene as jazz-rock. Rainer Hansen joined as a saxophonist and flautist. Alcatraz cooperated with the alternative scene at the time around snowball records and the free-and-outside operators with the Porta Westfalica center and the associated festivals.
Jan Rieck also took over the live management of the group. At the same time they got involved in the rock-against-right movement in Germany and allied themselves with the musicians of the English rock-against-racism initiative.
1980s
Alcatraz founded a band cooperative in Holm near Hamburg from the early 1980s with the R&B band “Mojo Baby” (with Thomas Hockling), the German wave group “Hinterbergers Wut” (with poet and philosopher Norbert Hinterberger) and reggae Band "Hypertension" (Johnny Huggins from Kingston). Rieck played in all four bands as a drummer and ran the live management. The Alcatraz musicians Holst, Jacob and Hansen also played in the participating groups.
The new Alcatraz instrumental phase started alongside Holst, Rieck and Hansen with Ralf Twellmann (bass) and the live LP Trockeneneis for Breakfast (1980 - Live at Onkel Pö in Hamburg and Gütersloh). Back then, the Holst compositions almost always led to experimental improvisations.
In 1982 Mike Kann replaced the bassist Manfred Jacob and Rainer Hansen as bassist and percussion player. Kann introduced elements of style from Santana to Brazilian and Cuban jazz musicians into the new trio. One stepped u. a. appeared nationwide at major festivals and played the LP Alcatraz No. 4 a.
Mike Kann left the band for four years in 1984. Klaus Holst also said goodbye, and Jan Rieck had to completely reorganize the band for the first time. For only one year from 1984 to 1985, the completely new sounding group came with Maik Walther (vocals, keyboard, saxophone, flute), Stefan Peter (keyboards), Mario Menzerolf (guitar, soprano saxophone), Albrecht Kunschke (bass, vocals) and Jan Rieck (drums) with stylistic elements from New Wave to David Bowie, King Crimson to partially acoustic, free jazz with English and German singing. This line-up released two live CDs in Menzerolf's punapau publishing house: Last Tango and OstepAlive .
From 1986 onwards there was another complete change with an almost pure jazz line-up with Hannes Wienert (saxophone, trumpet) and others. a. from the Hamburger Vollmond-Orchester and Mario Menzerolf, previously acoustic jazz guitarist and soprano saxophone player, but now on the piccolo bass with Jaco Pastorius influences. There were also four live CDs at punapau (see discography).
This line-up was succeeded in 1988 by a more rock-oriented formation with singer Peter Brandes, Phama John (keyboard, saxophone, vocals) as well as with the returnees Klaus Holst (guitar) and Mike Kann (bass, percussion). In two years there have been various appearances in larger north German event centers.
1990s
Phama, Kann and Rieck, the style was too conventional in the long run. In 1990 Holst and Brandes were separated and new compositions were developed, stylistically between free jazz, speed punk and the gothic lyrics of Waits and Cave . You met the guitarist Matthias Petzel, who in turn brought influences between punk / wave and Frank Zappa .
The next stylistic reorientation followed in 1992. The collaboration between Mike Kann and Jan Rieck resulted in the dominance of this duo. Sometimes they performed in pairs, also in the form of multimedia art events that focused on Mike Kann's oil painting exhibitions as well as the poetry readings by Jan Rieck and his newly published books (Heimatnovellen and Punk-Lyrik). At times old friends were built in as musical guests.
Here the brass section of the jazz trio from 1986 to 1988, Hannes Wienert, appears on the CD Gothic-Jazz: Last Station , where Mike Kann also appeared as lead vocalist for the first time, together with his solo-oriented effect bass. In addition, his poems found their way into the musical performances through reading by Rieck. At live performances at larger rock open air festivals, Klaus Holst appeared again as the third man.
Kann and Rieck received this multimedia concept until 1996. Then, on the initiative of Rieck, harder rock elements came into focus again. The music was mainly influenced by the new rock styles grunge , hard core, thrash metal, gothic, rap crossover. The fact that these elements entered a new fusion with older elements (Crimson, Zappa, Stones) at Alcatraz was also due to the return of old members to another new line-up: Phama John (vocals, saxophone), Klaus Holst (guitar), Matthias Petzel (guitar) as well as Mike Kann (bass, vocals) and Jan Rieck (drums).
The CD “Holm” was recorded, a work with German (Phama John) and English (Mike Kann) texts. Phama John took over the studio technology and the entire recording management at the same time . There were disagreements over the sound mixes, and the whole mix stretched over two years, which the band did not survive. Alcatraz separated in 1998 , the year the CD Holm was released.
2000s
At the beginning of 2000, Mike Kann and Jan Rieck got together again. As a third man, you could win the considerably younger Freiburg jazz musician David Wolf (alto and baritone saxophone, percussion). There were pieces that were only partly composed, but were mainly based on agreed musical directions. The new Alcatraz trio landed back in Lutz Rahn's studio at the turn of the year 2001-02, and this was followed by a CD with elements of free jazz , Latin, ring modulations, 70s fusion and Gothic lyric.
Then David Wolf moved back to Freiburg (Baden) as a music teacher with his family. Kann and Rieck did the studio mixing. The CD Sound Factory Session was only released in 2010. Kann and Rieck separated in 2002. Kann worked in the studio for a few years and from 2005 took a break.
After a professional crash in the spring of 2004, Jan Rieck moved to Berlin for a year and then to Munich in early 2005. There he met Thomas Hockling (see also Alcatraz 1976), who meanwhile lived in Aalen (Swabian Alb) for professional reasons, made his live music there and ran a private studio (Hockling and Rieck had their first joint appearance in Hamburg when they were 15 -Year-olds at a school festival in 1966).
Alcatraz was again performed as a duo in Aalen from 2005 (with occasional guests from Ba-Wü on bass or guitar) with Thomas Hockling (vocals, guitar, bass, keyboard) and Jan Rieck (drums). During this collaboration, the drum solo CD by Jan Rieck Alcatraz - Jan Rieck - Drums 2007, was initiated and produced by Hockling . A large collection of recordings, some of stylistic extremes from this period, are still waiting to be processed by Hockling.
Jan Rieck moved back to Hamburg-Finkenwerder in March 2009 and worked there with former musicians of the Alcatraz forerunner band from 1968 to 1969, the Jet Set Blues Band (Holger von Hardenberg, Ronny Wilson, Holger Cohrs), almost the old 1968- Occupation revived. In 2010 Thomas Hockling also moved to the Elbe again, and Lutz Rahn opened his new sound studio in Finkenwerder.
From 2010
At the end of 2009, Jan Rieck met guitarist Peter Brusch during a studio test, who also joined the new Alcatraz line-up as a studio technician and unit manager. Bassist, singer and Alcatraz founder Ronny Wilson also returned after almost four decades of abstinence from the band, and the new trio was formed.
From 2010 to 2011 this trio recorded five new CDs. The focus was on the concept CD "Rock Jazz Heavies" with compositions by the fusion musicians who dominated the 70s, such as Billy Cobham, Jeff Beck, King Crimson, Jack Bruce, etc., which were rearranged and expanded by the trio. There were also four improvised instrumental CDs, the “Warm Ups / No. 1–4 ".
Since 2009, Alcatraz has been actively involved as a co-founder of the artist cooperative “Kunstförderung Finkenwerder eV” (www.kunstfoerderung-nord.de), in which rock bands and other artists and initiatives take part in joint events and festivals, especially the annual “TIDENHUB Open Air” Rock Festival ”(www.tidenhub.org), work and support each other in all areas of need.
The Alcatraz project itself has since developed in several stylistic parallel projects that support each other: In addition to the "Alcatraz / Rock Jazz Heavies Project", the "Alcatraz / Classic Rock Project" was set up in early 2012. This project with Brusch / Wilson / Rieck was expanded by Lutz Rahn (Hammond organ, ex Novalis) and again by Peter Brandes (vocals, see 1988-90). This project has since performed with interpretations and arrangements of concert compositions from the late 1960s.
Ronny Wilson left both projects in early 2013. Mike Kann came back on board after an 11-year hiatus and has played bass in all projects since then. In spring 2014 Peter Brandes also left and was replaced by Beate Jeroch (vocals) and Guy Roberts (vocals, harmonica, acoustic guitar) from London. Roberts left the band after a short time.
With a few live performances by the trio David Wolf (saxophone), Mike Kann and Jan Rieck, the 2002 "Alcatraz / Grunge Jazz Project" was brought back to life at the same time.
In addition, the second version of "Alcatraz / Gothic Jazz Project" will be under construction from summer 2014. The Hamburg prog guitarist Thomas Kirschler and keyboardist Bernd Nagurski (younger brother of Klaus Nagurski) joined Kann and Rieck. Nagurski also left the band after a short time. The musical focus of the remaining trio is on new original compositions with many odd bars and hard prog riffs.
Kirschler is also the head of the bipolar-ug authors' publishing house, which runs products from Finkenwerder artists, especially the Alcatraz projects and Kirschler's own prog band "Razorking", as well as the paintings by Mike Kann and the books by Jan Rieck.
In mid-2015, the trio "Alcatraz / Jazz Machine" was founded by Kann and Rieck as another Alcatraz parallel project with the new musician André Czarnotta (guitar, e-piano). Sporadically, David Wolf (saxophone) from Freiburg wants to join this trio again.
The project mainly plays jazz compositions by icons such as John Coltrane, Herbie Hancock, John McLaughlin, Tony Williams, Dizzy Gillespie, McCoy Tyner. Jazz original compositions as well as rampant improvisations complete the program. The first CD at bipolar-Verlag is planned for the beginning of 2018.
Due to the clear stylistic differences between the projects, the musicians of the Alcatraz Classic Rock Project decided to change the name of this band: "Isle of Classic Rock". Of course, the entire cooperative will otherwise remain in place.
Discography
- 1971: Vampire State Building (Vinyl, Philips / 2002, CD, longhairmusic)
- 1976: Made in Germania (Live) (bipolar)
- 1978: Energy program in rock (vinyl, reents / bipolar)
- 1980: Dry Ice for Breakfast (Live) (Vinyl, bipolar)
- 1982: No. 4 (vinyl / 2010, CD, bipolar)
- 1985: Open Step / Last Tango (punapau)
- 1985: Open Step / OstepAlive (punapau)
- 1987: WMR Trio / Flying Circus (punapau)
- 1987: WMR Trio / Holm Summit (punapau)
- 1987: WMR Trio / more cuts (punapau)
- 1988: WMR Trio / MEK-live (punapau)
- 1993: Gothic Jazz: Last Station (bipolar)
- 1998: Holm (bipolar)
- 2002: Sound Factory Session (bipolar)
- 2007: Jan Rieck - Drums (bipolar)
- 2010: Warm Ups - Vol. 1 (bipolar)
- 2010: Warm Ups - Vol. 2 (bipolar)
- 2010: Warm Ups - Vol. 3 (bipolar)
- 2010: Warm Ups - Vol. 4 (bipolar)
- 2011: Rock Jazz Heavies (bipolar)
Web links
- Official website
- Alcatraz discography
- Alcatraz on the baby blue pages
- Alcatraz Interview of March 3, 2019 on It's Psychedelic Baby Magazine English / German, accessed on May 2, 2020
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jan Rieck: Alcatraz - info page. In: Alcatraz - official website. 2017, accessed December 24, 2017 .